Sierra Blogging Post Archives

If you find yourself awake early (or up late) Tuesday morning, be sure to step outside and check out the night sky - you just might see a spectacular space display. It's the annual Leonids meteor Shower and this year is set to be better than most!

The annual show of comet debris will peak in the early morning hours of Tuesday November 17th and will be best viewed from the eastern U.S. and Europe this time around.

Starting at around 11:30 pm EST Monday night through about 5:30 am EST Tuesday morning about 10-20 comets an hour should be visible if we get lucky enough to have a clear night. This may not sound like much but it's actually 2-3 times more prolific than your average Leonids show.


Because of the trajectory of the debris cloud, the chances of seeing a fireball are also slightly increased. A fireball is a meteor that "silently explodes like a strobe along its path," according to this article in Space magazine.

While beautiful, meteorites have the potential to be dangerous, "warns" Gene Gardner, Project Manager for the Smithsonian's Whipple Observatory in Tucson, AZ (aka my Dad). "This car was hit by a meteorite (shown above) in Peekskill, NY in 1992. While the odds are very low that your car will be hit by a meteorite, those chances will be greater than normal during the Leonids Meteor shower predicted to peak after midnight Monday night, November 16th," he says.

So get the coffee out and stay up all night Monday and on into the wee hours of Tuesday if you want to see one of the universe's greatest shows. But leave your car in the garage... just in case.

UPDATE: Check out these two cool video the astronomers at Willard L. Eccles Observatory at Frisco Peak caught on their security camera last night. Apparently the rather large meteor lit up the sky in California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado at 12:09 PST.